Ajahn Sujato: “I Think We’re Doomed”

Ajahn Sujato — the founding abbot of Santi Forest Monastery, resident of Bodhinyana Monastery, Sutta Central content creator, and popular blogger — has a new Earth Day post at his site that is noteworthy for its tone of discouragement about humanity’s lack of action on climate change. He writes:

The plain reality is that all of the activism that has been done for decades is a complete failure. No matter how many solar panels we put up, or how efficient our light bulbs become, the carbon in the atmosphere keeps going up, as fast or faster. Now we are at 402 ppm, higher than anytime in the past 800,000 years, at least. And so who cares? Who is actually prepared to change anything?

The IPCC claims that making the necessary changes would be incredibly cheap: the median annual growth of consumption over this century would decline by a mere 0.06%. Yet even this trifling sum is too much. To avoid paying it we have toppled governments and generated a whole new industry of denialism.

I simply don’t think that we will make the necessary changes. Of course, we can: that is not the issue. And perhaps we will. But I am an empiricist. I look at the evidence and try to make a reasonable extrapolation. And to extrapolate a survivable future, we have to assume a massive change in behaviour and values, and there is simply no evidence of this.

You can read the rest here, and Ajahn Sujato promises more posts in the future as well.

(A tip of the hat, by the way, to NellaLou for pointing this post out to those of us who follow her via social media.)

ABOUT OFF THE CUSHION This blog begins with the assumption that Thai social critic and engaged Buddhist thinker Sulak Sivaraksa is correct when he says, "Any attempt to understand Buddhism apart from its social dimension is fundamentally a mistake." It also affirms Cambodian peace activist and Buddhist monk Maha Ghosananda's belief that "we must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering." Therefore we shall seek to look closely at contemporary human problems in light of Buddhist thought, looking for ways to apply Buddhist values in service of a more just, peaceful, and loving world. Rev. Danny Fisher, ordained Buddhist minister and chaplain, is the author, but your thoughts and contributions are most welcome and strongly encouraged.